Rats in Craig-y-nos castle

As you would expect rats and mice were a problem in Craig-y-nos castle though I must confess I was never aware of this during my four year stay.


However, other children did see them.

As far back as 1928 Ted Ellis, aged seven years, recalls how they used to wet pieces of paper and push them through the iron gratings in the floor in order to hear the rats and mice scamper around in the Glass Conservatory.


Rosie Hunt once saw a rat jump off a table on to a bed ( top Ward 2).
Eileen Gibbons, young adult on the ground floor, remembers being warned not to let food drop on the floor because of the rats.

But the most horrific story though comes from Pam Hamer ( late 1940s) who was encased in an iron frame on the balcony of Ward 2 and she woke up one night to find a rat in her bed.

The night nurse tried to calm her down by telling her it was their pet rat "Joey" who had come to say good -night to her.